In the late 1990s, a young Neil Gresham arrived on the Greek island of Kalymnos armed with a drill, a pocketful of bolts, and an intuition that its untouched limestone cliffs held enormous potential. What he couldn’t foresee was how profoundly the island, and the people who lived there, would shape the course of his life and the future of European sport climbing. His early bolting missions, carried out during a time when Kalymnos barely registered on the climbing map, laid the groundwork for what would become one of the world’s most beloved destinations for climbers.

A Homecoming to Stone and Community

The new film tracing Gresham’s return to the island revisits not just the historic routes he helped establish but also the friendships and community ties forged along the way. As he retraces steep walls and shaded caves, he reconnects with the locals who welcomed him decades earlier and supported the young climber’s vision. These encounters add emotional depth to the narrative, transforming the journey into more than a celebration of climbing history — it becomes a meditation on belonging, gratitude, and the strange ache of revisiting one’s own beginnings.

Legacy on the Limestone

From half-forgotten bolting days to the iconic lines that eventually drew climbers from around the globe, Gresham reflects on a chapter that helped define modern sport climbing. The film stands as both a tribute to Kalymnos’s rise and to the climber who played a pivotal role in its story. It captures the enduring resonance of those formative years — the climbs, the landscapes, and the people that remain etched into his memory.